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South East Asia (SEA) isn't totally full of sky-scrapers-- just the wealthy cities like Hong Kong, Singapore, or Shen Zhen. What all these cities have in common is fast, recent growth and limited space. England or France, or many other European states have been developing for hundreds of years. 200 years ago, there was no technology for sky scrapers; so, ...

Fire-hardened spears, hardwood clubs and maces and shark-tooth "swords" were pretty much state-of-the-art for both Aboriginal and Polynesian cultures. The Polynesians had the advantage of advanced stonemasonry and oceanic navigation, neither of which would do them much good in a war of conquest, the native Australians had a spear-thrower, the woomera, which ...

Technically, Tokyo, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Taipei, are NOT in South East Asia.
They are in Asia, which hosts 60% of the world's current human population.
Having 60% of the world's population seems like a valid reason to have a good proportion of the skyscrapers.
That being said, the small number of skyscrapers in Europe can not be denied. In ...

The following data are taken entirely from the Angus Maddison (GDP per capita) project database (Jan 2013 update).
In 1965, Singapore's GDP per capita was $2,667 (in 1990 dollars).
This put Singapore at a higher GDP per capita than every East and South Asian country, with the exceptions of Japan ($5,934) and Hong Kong ($4,825).
For comparison, countries ...

@KennyLJ's answer relies on the highly respected data series put together by Angus Maddison. Maddison's statistics post-independence are probably derived from official statistics (which begun in 1960, a year after Singapore achieved self-governance). So I think KennyLJ's answer more than qualifies for the bounty. The following is just for context.
Both ...

(Disclaimer: I've not seen that documentary so I'm sure what exactly it said.)
Sort of.
In a literal sense, Angkor Wat was built upon a sea of groundwater. The city was built in a very wet and water-rich area; much of this water found its way underground. At the lower levels, the water fills up all the pores and holes in the sandy soil. The water table ...

People from what is modern day Indonesia were visiting northern Australia to collect and process trepang (sea-cucumber or sea slug) for centuries before European settlement. These people are generally referred to as Macassan (or Makassan). The first European to circumnavigate Australia, Matthew Flinders, encountered Macassans processing trepang. ...

To expand on NewAlexandria's answer:
Europe has a well developed planning and zoning regime. Obtaining planning approval for a building that is not in keeping with the existing stock is a long process that will usually meet with either failure or limitations on the design/ profile.
On of the reasons the shard is the shape it is was to prevent existing ...

In Germany employees have the right to daylight at their workplace. This is not easy in a skyscraper, which often has a huge core of rooms without any daylight.
There might be some information in DIN EN 12464-1 Licht und Beleuchtung – Beleuchtung von Arbeitsstätten – Teil 1: Arbeitsstätten in Innenräume

If I want to occupy space in a major city I have three choices.
Build a new skyscraper (possibly by proxy in the sense that I occupy space in a skyscraper built by someone else who was prepared to erect the building only because he anticipated my and others' demand for it).
Occupy existing space in low-rise structures.
Build new low-rise structures on ...

Australia was a lot less hospitable area than Polynesians, Indonesians, and other islanders were used to.
Although technically in the tropics, the fact that people lived on islands meant that the sea was a moderating influence on the climate, and "temperate" weather crops such as breadfuirt and sweet potatoes could grow on them. Also, the sea provided a ...

The austronesian were great mariners and this brought them to far corner of the globe as far as Easter island and Madagascar. But why not Australia which lies south of Indonesia? I think the most plausible answer is because its already inhabited and when austronesian made landings, to Australia, it was by chance and composed of a handful of individuals. They ...

Perhaps the best way to think of this question is to recognize that there are roughly three ways to think about right/legitimacy, which correspond to the angle of one's approach: the state, domestic stakeholders, and the international community. Each of these are considered below. We should also recognize the difference between a "claim" to legitimacy, and ...

The answer to this varies considerably by region and class of soldiers. The soldiers from some higher social classes had limited armor that was made of brass plates sewn over fabric, but they represented a minor segment of the assorted militaries.
The more common foot soldier was much more limited in what constituted "armor". It would be more accurate to ...

I found an interesting article that discusses this topic, and I believe it provided a pretty realistic explanation for this. Basically, it stated that the economic and diplomatic sanctions placed on Myanmar by the West had a major impact. The reasoning is not that the rulers of Myanmar particularly cared about the impact of said sanctions on the citizens as ...

Pragmatically, because:
Europe has a long history of great architecture, which is preserved even in the face of modern developments.
the density of existing metro spaces makes it difficult to site a major project where it will get the appropriate attention. If there is space for it, it may be too far away from the metro centers
skyscrapers aint all that, ...

We know the population of the whole Southeast Asia mostly by estimates. Contemporary figures are considered unreliable, and state of the art values are computed by combining the most reliable ones with backward projections from XIX century data.
Estimated Southeast Asian Population about 1600
...

Legally in England, there is the law of "Right to Light" In short this means that existing buildings have an expectation that their natural light will be preserved by later developmnts, ie putting up a skyscraper next to my house would be a criminal act.

Emporis defines "skyscraper" as:
A skyscraper is defined on Emporis as a multi-story building whose architectural height is at least 100 meters. This definition falls midway between many common definitions worldwide, and is intended as a metric compromise which can be applied across the board worldwide. The 100-meter cutoff for a skyscraper coincides ...

There are a couple of factors here I haven't seen mentioned:
Skyscrapers are generally office buildings, often owned by a single
company. Asian skyscrapers often mean to represent economical
success of a company.
Buildings in countries like Japan are generally built for short term, couple of decades, no more. Also, centralized policy on architecture is ...

The problem with the Thesis in Gun, Germs, and Steel is that we have one example of an E-W megacontinent (Eurasia) and one example of a N-S one (the Americas). Africa is a bit small, and vague on E-W vs N-S.
The Island comparison probably fails due to the small size of any island, so the different terrain zones are similar.

I agree that scattered Austronesian landings on the big island continent may well have prevented this culture from building up any significant numbers to thrive. But I don't think it would be due to any hostility of Aborigines that they wouldn't. I'd say that the locals would expect some sort of compensation like seafood, for the imposition on their lands, ...

It is because European cities have building height restrictions. For example, London has a 1000-foot absolute restriction and it is very rare for any building over 250 feet high to be permitted. Paris has similar laws that prevent the construction of any building over about 200 feet (12 stories).
The reasons given for these restrictions are given out as to ...